DirkJake- Endgame
by IrisLovegood413
Summary: Just a little oneshot about what really happened at the end of Sburb.


Your name is Dirk Strider and you wish you could be anywhere but here.

Sure, you just finally beat the game that quite literally ruined your life. Sure, the door to the new universe is right there and all you have to do is open it and then you can do anything you want. Logically this is the only place to be. But of course logic isn't strong enough for once. If it was, it would be able to stop you from wanting to turn around and go hide on one of the planets or something for the rest of your life.

 _Why_ are you feeling so conflicted?

Because your ex-boyfriend is standing right over there.

You knew this encounter was unavoidable, and that that was probably for the best. There was literally no communication when you broke up, and you haven't spoken since. Even if you were never going to talk to each other again, there has to be _some_ sort of closure, right? But _you_ sure as hell don't want to say anything.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Jake wants to start the conversation either. He definitely saw you. You make eye contact for a second and then he awkwardly looks away and edges closer to the other side of the platform. Seeing that only makes the pain worse. You know you hurt him. You're tempted to just give up, for both of your sakes. Trying to fix your relationship even a little would probably just make it all worse.

What are you supposed to do?

You don't know. So you just stand there, happy reunions happening around you only making it more obvious how alone you are. You don't want to stare, so you just awkwardly look at the floor, glancing up at him every once in a while, because you can't help it. He seems to be doing the same. You wonder what's going through his head. Is he wishing he had the courage to speak too? Is his mind racing, running through the thousands of words he wishes he had told you, wondering if any of them could describe how he felt now? Is he ready to surrender to the intimidation of the infinite possible outcomes of talking to you and just give up?

No. You can't let it end like this. If he's not going to say something, you have to be the one to do it.

You swallow the uneasy feeling in your stomach and walk towards him. The closer you get, the more nervous he looks. He looks away. He's pretending not to notice you. _Turn around. Walk away. This is a horrible idea._

"Jake."

He turns around. "Hm?"

 _Don't pretend you didn't see me._

You can tell he's still anxious, despite how hard he's trying to act like everything's fine. Everything's not fine and the sooner he admits it the sooner you two can fix it.

You decide to just cut to the chase instead of pathetically attempting to avoid the awkwardness you're both feeling. "I'm sorry."

He doesn't respond. He probably just doesn't know what to say, and you aren't sure what to say either. Well it's probably better to just spill whatever comes to mind. You can't think of anything you could say that would make the situation worse than it already is.

"I shouldn't have pushed you so hard. You never liked me the way I like you, and I'm ok with that. I know I hurt you and I feel horrible about it. I just… I guess I just didn't know how to express my feelings for someone and trying just messed everything up."

 _Please say something._

But he doesn't say anything. You don't know anymore if he just doesn't know what to say or doesn't want to talk to you. It's probably the latter. You should leave. You should just walk away and leave him alone for once. You're only making it worse and you know it. So naturally, you keep talking.

"I'm not expecting you to forgive me or anything. I know I was a jerk and I don't even deserve that. I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry and I know it was my fault. It's ok if you hate me… I think I'd actually feel better if you did."

More silence.

Oh well. At least you tried. Admitting defeat, you begin to walk away. He wasn't going to forgive you, and that was ok. You did what you could. Maybe this just means he's mad at you, which was good. You don't deserve his approval, and he didn't deserve to feel bad.

"Dirk, wait."

You stop, and so does your heart. You almost don't _want_ to hear what he has to say. It would be so much easier to keep walking and admit that it's over.

But you know this wasn't supposed to be easy. In a situation like this, the more difficult decision has to be the better one.

With this in mind, you bite your lip and turn around. Jake is actually looking at you this time, and there's a pained expression on his face that you're sure is suggesting that you aren't going to like where this conversation is going.

"I don't hate you."

 _Okay, maybe never mind._

"It's not all your fault, Dirk. I never should have let you think that it was. We wouldn't have been in this mess if I had said something in the first place. I didn't know what I was doing and I'm so sorry I let that leave you feeling like this."

 _What?_ No, he can't blame himself. Sure, it would have helped things if he had told you what an awful person you were being, but he didn't do anything actually wrong. He _couldn't_ do anything wrong. Not in your eyes at least.

"No, I'm the one that started this. I forced you into a relationship. I knew you never had the same feelings I had for you, but I didn't let go and I only got worse."

"No, I… I _do_ like you like that. It's just…"

You want to say something. You don't want to leave him trailing off and creating yet another awkward silence. But you can't. You don't know what to say, and even if you did, you're too shocked to speak. Does he _really_ like you? Did he actually just say that? Could it be possible that you completely misread the situation?

"Dirk, I'd want nothing more than to try being with you again. But I… I don't think that's the best idea. At least… Not right now."

Now you're confused. He wants to be with you, but… He also doesn't? Not that you're secretly holding on to every last bit of hope of being his boyfriend again. You just want things to finally make sense.

"What do you mean?" You have to ask. It probably sounds clingy and annoying again, but you really can't help it.

Luckily he doesn't seem to have a problem with explaining.

"I don't think I'm ready for a relationship like that yet. To be perfectly honest I don't think _any_ of us are. I grew up alone on an island, you and Roxy have your post-apocalyptic isolation stories, and Jane… Well she hasn't _mentioned_ any other friends. It's obvious none of us know how to properly interact with people. We should probably work on fixing that before we try anything more than friendship."

That makes sense, you decide. The four of you didn't exactly grow up the same as everyone else. How can you be expected to build a relationship from that kind of social deprivation? Maybe that's why everything went wrong in the first place. Jake still wasn't used to having others around, and you were so excited to finally not be alone that you rushed everything instead of taking the time you so obviously needed. The desire for a normal relationship ended up being the thing that stopped it from happening. You just weren't ready.

You aren't sure how you hadn't thought about this before. Probably because you weren't expecting _any_ kind of relationship with Jake after _that_ whole disaster.

"Once we're sure we're ready, I'd love to try starting over if you're up for it," he continued. "I want to give our relationship a fair chance. After all, we have time. _Christ_ , we might be even be immortal for all we know once this is all over! For now,… I'd still like to be friends like before if that's okay with you."

You still aren't totally sure what to say. He's right of course. If you want a good shot at being his boyfriend, you're both going to have to wait a bit. It still feels like a strange idea. But he's giving you that adorable half-smile he always has when he's trying to look on the bright side of things, so you nod.

"Friends?"

You let out a sigh of relief mixed with something else you can't quite describe. This couldn't be so bad. At least he doesn't hate you, and there's hope for you two in the future.

"Friends."

You're seated at a picnic table in the park. You aren't sure where the table or the park actually came from, but you don't really care all that much. Ever since coming into the new universe, stuff like this has been popping up all over the place. You just haven't bothered to ask anybody how it got there.

You have earbuds in and a pencil in your hand, doodling near-mindlessly into a notebook on the table in front of you. Recently you've gotten the idea to try making some kind of movie out of whatever stupid idea pops into your head. It's changed three times already, but you're currently drawing out characters from your latest idea while listening to some instrumental you put together on your computer earlier. It's about time someone came up with some form of entertainment around here. Maybe you can be the one to take Can Town by storm.

This is all for ironic purposes, of course. You know you'd never be able to keep interest long enough to actual make anything resembling a movie. You're just _really_ bored at the moment.

Suddenly someone taps your shoulder. You tense up for a moment before turning around quickly to see Jake standing there smiling at you.

You tell yourself that was from your sharply trained battle-ready instincts. He didn't actually scare you. Of course not.

"Hey," you say, closing your notebook and pulling the earbuds out of your ears.

He holds up something. A soccer ball. You aren't sure you want to know where this is going.

"Fancy a game of football?"

It takes every muscle in your body to keep from laughing. _He's such a dork._

Your self-control lets loose a small smirk.

"Where'd you even get that?" You ask.

"Found it."

 _For God's sake._

"So, do you want to play?" He asks impatiently.

You raise an eyebrow. "Do you even know what to do with that?"

"Do you?"

"Not a clue."

"Me neither!"

You sigh. He's going to be the death of you.

All of a sudden he drops the ball and kicks it into the field behind him, before grabbing your hand and pulling you off the bench. "Let's go figure it out!"

If it was anyone else, you would dig your heels into the ground and refuse to move. Trying to teach yourself how to play soccer sounds pretty terrible to you. But he's so cute when he was excited, you couldn't possibly refuse.

Ok, maybe you aren't completely over Jake yet. Maybe you never will be. But from the way it sounded, he isn't over you either. And just being around him is enough for the time being.

Jake English is your friend. Just your friend. And that's ok for now.


End file.
